Ssh asks for password despite ssh-copy-id

public-keysshsshfs

I've been using public key authentication on a remote server for some time now for remote shell use as well as for sshfs mounts. After forcing a umount of my sshfs directory, I noticed that ssh began to prompt me for a password. I tried purging the remote .ssh/authorized_keys from any mention the local machine, and I cleaned the local machine from references to the remote machine. I then repeated my ssh-copy-id, it prompted me for a password, and returned normally. But lo and behold, when I ssh to the remote server I am still prompted for a password. I'm a little confused as to what the issue could be, any suggestions?

Best Answer

Check that the remote end's sshd_config has an AuthorizedKeysFile directive matching what you expect (or none; the default is .ssh/authorized_keys), that PubkeyAuthentication has not been disabled, and that either UsePAM is disabled or that the PAM service configuration for sshd does not force interactive password entry. Also check whether the remote has installed openssh-blacklist, and if so, check if your key is affected.

Related Solutions

SSH Authentication – Use Only Password and Ignore SSH Key

Try ssh -o PasswordAuthentication=yes -o PreferredAuthentications=keyboard-interactive,password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no host.example.org

In ssh v2, keyboard-interactive is another way to say "password". The -o PubkeyAuthentication=no option instructs the client not to attempt key pair authentication.

In addition, the PasswordAuthentication=yes option is to override any previously configured ssh options that may have disabled it.

Ssh – How to sudo over sshfs

This will vary depending on the OS of the server you are connecting to. For centOS 5 you would add to the sshfs mount options:

-o sftp_server="/usr/bin/sudo /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-server"

For Ubuntu 9.10 (I think, might be 9.04, but it's probably the same for both) or Debian you would add:

-o sftp_server="/usr/bin/sudo /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server".

To find an the correct path for other systems running openSSH run

sudo grep Subsystem /etc/ssh/sshd_config

and look for the location of the sftp-server binary.

You might need to setup sudo with NOPASS:{path to sftp-server} or prevalidate with ssh user@host sudo -v so that sudo has a updated timestamp for notty. In my case, my two commands were:

ssh login_user@host sudo -v
sshfs login_user@host:remote_path local_path -o sftp_server="/usr/bin/sudo -u as_user /usr/lib/ssh/sftp-server"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

SSH Authentication – Use Only Password and Ignore SSH Key

Ssh – How to sudo over sshfs

Related Topic